


Two fools, on top of the world

by Battery_operated



Category: Hazbin Hotel (Web Series)
Genre: M/M, Voxval, but i still made this because god dammit this ship needs more content, im sorta late, staticmoth, staticmoth event
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:00:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25500250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Battery_operated/pseuds/Battery_operated
Summary: Before Velvet joined them, before they were even overlords, it was just Vox and Valentino against the entirety of hell. But even then, they believed themselves to be kings.Staticmoth week day seven prompt: Royal/We are kings
Relationships: Valentino/Vox (Hazbin Hotel)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 80





	Two fools, on top of the world

"Rough night?"

It was a dry joke thrown Valentino's way by Vox as he hoisted himself up and onto the roof, visibly struggling. He'd flown a good way up the building and nearly made it to the top when his torn and aching wings finally gave out on him. Sputtering and scrambling for grip, he barely was able to claw himself the rest of the way up.

Vox sat amused as he watched Val collapse next to him, noting that his wings weren't the only thing beat up about him. He still possessed a number of still healing bruises and cuts littered over his body, which now, without his coat on, were plain to see.

He had been able to take the elevator up before Val came while he waited for the other to finish whatever business he had decided to attend and join him. Being on good terms with the overlord who owned the building wasn't the most useful connection he had, but was handy whenever he was in the mood to sit and watch all of Hell from above.

"That's one way to put it you fucking bastard," Val swore, out of breath.

"I told you that you were being awfully smug when you went to make that deal." Vox pointed out as he focused back on the view underneath them. "Bit off more than you could chew, and you did it with a fucking grin. Tell me exactly what did you expect?"

"I would have expected you would have told me that they were such a threat."

Sounding more angry than hurt, Vox knew that, for the most part, Valentino was fine. Aside from a wounded pride and a few broken bones that would take a couple days to heal, he'd come out rather unscathed- as Vox had expected.

It was an outcome he'd predicted long before Valentino had come back. Still quite new to hell and a touch too cocky and a few touches too bold, Vox had known it wasn't going to work out for him. He knew that the moth demon had a tendency to treat potential business partners too casually and without enough respect. Multiple times he'd warned him not to be so brash when attempting to create contracts. 

But just as a child needed to be left to touch the stove to realize it is hot, Vox decided to sit back and allow Val to learn that on his own. Being twenty years his senior when it came to time spent in Hell, it was a lesson Vox had already learned the hard way as well.

"You say that as if you would have listened to me if I had. I honestly didn't know that you can hear half the shit I say."

"Funny."

"And now you like my sense of humor? Today really is full of surprises."

"Well I hope you're still surprised when I shove my foot up your ass," snarled Val.

"I would prefer you didn't. Unlike you, I don't have much experience taking things up my ass."

Vox half expected him to lean over and whack him for that, or at least yell, so he knew this night had been particularly bad when he just muttered a few curses under his breath and went to light a cigarette instead.

With smoking being a vice he'd never been particularly interested in, alive or dead, he refused when Val begrudgingly offered the open pack in his direction.

He took a long drag, smoke flooding into bruised lungs, before exhaling with a bloody cough and rolling his shoulders. "I'm a pimp, but damn if the women here aren't vicious."

Vox snorted. "It's Hell, what did you expect?"

"Can't say, but it would have been real nice of them to kiss my ass, make the deal, and let me leave without a black eye."

"If that's how things worked down here we'd already be overlords." 

"We'll be overlords," Val said carefully in that voice of his that told Vox he already had it all figured out in his head. "We'll be kings even. It'll just take a bit more time."

"You sound awfully confident for someone spitting out teeth."

"The living world was a shithole and I managed to claw my way to the top from the bottom there. So what if this hole is a bit shittier and a little deeper? I'll get there."

Vox wanted to disagree with him. So far he'd been in Hell for nearly two decades and had long since planned exactly how he was going to get power and status. But plans always had a way of working out on paper.

And that was why twenty years later Vox was still barely any more than a nobody.

It seemed like an uphill battle he was constantly sliding down. Sure he had made quite a few useful connections, a couple of valuable allies, but those he'd made so far only helped him serve the minimum of what was required for a decent life in Hell. A nice place to stay, a source of income, protection from exterminations and most dangerous threats. All those things were nice, essential actually, but it still put him nowhere near the big ranks. After being in hell but so long with so little progress, even his own narcissistic complex had begun to falter at the idea of being able to make it big in hell.

So when he met Val at a bar for the first time while scouting out more potential connections, he decided that maybe a partner would be of use to him.

Valentino had been the one to approach him first that night with honeyed words and sharp eyes- eyes much like his own. They spoke all night and well into the morning, even deciding to take their chat elsewhere to continue when the bar closed. They talked circles around each other and Vox had been more than happy to speak with someone capable of keeping up with him toe to toe in a conversation. Especially when Val had a silver tongue and the intelligence to make use of it.

That night Vox, without even knowing it, had made his single most important connection in his life or death. 

Val came into his afterlife talking about all of the grand things Vox aspired towards. And Vox quickly learned that Val didn't just sit and talk about things.

Perhaps it was Vox's fault for being too reserved when it came to his ambition, but where Vox fell short beyond just talk and charm, Val knew how to act. How to seize the moment instead of just letting it scamper by. He knew when to kill someone. Kidnap someone. Threaten someone. Hell, fuck someone if need be.

Vox was one to plan, to calculate, to theorize his next move. But the world didn't seem to work in the ones and zeros Vox had so neatly laid out in his head. But Valentino was better at working on the go, at maneuvering through the world when it bled from the tidy ones and zeros into the messy world of emotions and passion. Adept at working in the unpredictability of life.

While, granted, his overzealous nature didn't always work in his favor, his ability to act still helped him ahead. Reckless might be the best word for the way he behaved, but the controlled madness worked for him and Val knew it.

So Vox kept quiet, at least for tonight. Valentino was a bastard, too smug for his own good, an absolute rat and also, somehow, perfect at what he did. So vox trusted him when he claimed their royalty.

Vox hummed. "Well put I suppose. Funny to think we might be looking back on this one day, laughing."

"Not might, we will. We're kings, Vox, just because nobody realizes that hardly makes it any less true. We'll be on top of the world one day. But for now, sitting up here-" Val widely motioned to scenery below where sinners and demons alike scampered along their daily lives like ants. "will have to do."

Sometimes the absolute sense of finality that Val often said things with almost had Vox believing him at times.

"We're kings," Vox said, putting his hands up and mocking surrender. "because of course we are."

"Damn right we are."

"Still, it's quite the challenge when we can hardly trust anyone here. Hell, you're a conniving backstabber, how the hell do I know I can even trust you?"

"You don't. No one can ever trust anyone here and I sure as hell don't trust you. Heaven help any poor fool stupid enough to fall in love in a place like this."

Vox snickered at the sour joke. "May God rest their soul."

**Author's Note:**

> This was written under my headcanon that since Val died a while after Vox did, Vox just sorta took him under his wing when they met because he was cute and flirted with him in a bar. They became a ragtag coalition that started to gain status together and thus their rise to power began.
> 
> Though it is weird to think that Angel is much older than Val.
> 
> Anyway, felt cute, might make an angsty story later comparing staticmoth and radiodust because they're literally the same ship? Like both have a tall, flirty, insect demon bastard and a short, charismatic, and occasionally murder-y bastard? And the best part is that they absolutely hate each other despite being the same ship? This shit needs a story.


End file.
